Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • April 24, 2013 ing on the driveway at a staggering discount. The “asphalt” is probably black paint from a deep-discount paint store. The secondary targets are the baby boomers, those born just after World War II through about 1960. Baby boomers tend not to be good at saving money, but they tend to want to be -- or act -- younger than they are, and this targets them in several ways. Baby boomers enjoy working outdoors to show they are still spry, or because they simply love nature. Police in Wyckoff have discovered a new menace: While the husband and wife are outside in the garden, the perpetrator, sometimes posing as a contractor, slips into the house though a door that was left open and makes off with whatever cash, jewelry, or high-grade electronics he can gather up in a minute or less. This scam has overtones of burglary, but the impersonation of a contractor verges it over into a sort of confidence game. Amazon wonder drugs are also big with some baby boomers. The new exotic fruit found only in the Amazon will take 40 years off your life, restore your energy, and make your hair grow back. The Indians in the Amazon - like Indians everywhere -- do not experience male pattern baldness. Sadly enough, people who know them say Amazon Indians generally live to be about 40, so if the Amazon berries really work, they do not work on the people who discovered them. Bullying also turns up. A few years ago, a woman whose first language was not English, was ordering legal therapeutic drugs by mail. She received a call from the “FDA” telling her there was a federal warrant out on her for violating the narcotics laws and if she did not want to go to prison, she should send multiple thousands of dollars. The woman may very well have come from a country where genuine public officials are not averse to bribes, but in this case the public official was anything but genuine. The money vanished, but she did not go to jail. Selling items on the Internet also has its perils. One favorite scam begins when the seller receives a check for $2,000 when he was asking for $200. The seller follows up and the buyer says the best way to deal with it is to send a refund of $1,800 and cash the check. A few days later, the seller, who has already sent out the merchandise, learns that the $2,000 check bounced. Sales of non-existent property also generate excellent returns -- until the perpetrator gets caught. A Bergen County man recently came under indictment when he obtained some five-figure checks from a number of people promising quick returns on the purchase of real estate at low prices and the resale of real estate at fair market value. Many fortunes have been made in this manner. The trouble is that the real estate the man was selling never existed. A different man met a woman at a hotel, convinced the hotel manager to give her a better room at the same price, and won her confidence that he was a true gentleman and a brilliant businessman. He then offered her a chance to finance a real estate deal that was too good to refuse, he said. Oddly enough, that money also disappeared. The sad fact of life it that it is easier for some people at the lower edge of the wage scale to get rich by stealing than it is by working -- until they get caught. When they do get caught, their savings evaporate into extended plea bargains instead of tropical vacations or weekends in Paris. Honest people are vulnerable simply because they are honest. If an honest man finds an envelope full of cash lying on the street, he can take his chances that it is not counterfeit or marked ransom money and pocket it. If the wad of cash is in a wallet with an address, he will feel compelled to hand it over to the police or find the owner. Someone I know left a bag of quarters on a New York bus, but there was an ID card with an address in the bag. A couple of days later, a woman drove up in front of the house, rang the doorbell, and gave back the plastic bag full of change. My son dropped a $50 bill in his freshman year of college and another freshman saw it fall, picked it up, tapped my son’s shoulder, and handed it to him. There are people like that from all groups. There are also people from all groups who stay awake at night trying to figure out how to separate honest men and women from their hard-earned dollars. The best way to avoid their scams is to remember the old adage: If it seems too good to be true, it probably IS too good to be true. It is also wise to tell your grandchildren to drive safely in other countries -- or to see America first. Some historians believe the central theme of American history is the unending battle between the creditors and the debtors. Now that spring is here, a sub-theme plays out as people who may have debts, but probably do not pay them, assault the bank accounts of those who do save money. The assailants are known as scam artists. The target of most scam artists is the “Depression baby” group: people born during times when money was scarce and saving was encouraged because many people lost the farm or the house and many missed meals. Those people learned the value of a dollar before the value of a dollar dropped to twelve-and-a-half cents in gold-backed currency. The Depression babies saved hard. Scammers pursue them like wolves chasing down caribou. One of the favorite scams is the grandson in trouble scheme. Grandma and Grandpa get a phone call, supposedly from a foreign country. The caller tells them their grandson, usually a college student or a recent graduate, has had a serious accident somewhere outside the United States -- Canada seems to be a favorite -- and that the Mounties have him in custody. Unless the caller gets $20,000 to hire a lawyer, the grandson will be thrown in prison. The grandparents come up with the money and send it to the lawyer by some sort of transfer method that does not facilitate delayed payment. If the grandparents are really unlucky, they may get another phone call to pay, let us say, for medical bills for the other person who was injured in the accident so that he or she does not press charges. Eventually, the grandparents get suspicious or run out of accessible savings. Then the grandson turns up and reports that he was never in Canada and absolutely not in an automobile accident. The good news is that the grandson is not locked away with imaginary surly trappers and prospectors and their sled dogs or insurgent Eskimos. The bad news is the grandparents wiped out a bank account when the grandson was never at risk. The scam is predicated on a human foible: Mothers-inlaw seldom trust daughters-in-law to do a good job of raising kids, and grandmothers expect the “spoiled” grandson to get into trouble. Freud could explain this sort of thing, but I can’t. The love of grandparents for their grandchildren is ruthlessly exploited by scammers who love money more than honor. A lot of them do. People who do not know a lot about exterior home maintenance are also targets. The scam here is for a contractor to pull up in a truck, ring the doorbell, and politely but breathlessly warn that he was driving around and noticed that the homeowner’s chimney was about to collapse. For a rather substantial amount of money, he can make sure that it does not collapse. People who have been there know the “contractor” will probably ask to be paid in cash or by personal check if at all possible, and will then clamber up on the roof, do some useless work, and report that the chimney was about to collapse, but he saved the day at the last minute. Alternatively, the contractor may pull up and tell the homeowner he was just doing a job on the next block and has some leftover asphalt that could be used for a new coat- Springtime is scam season Our hat’s off to: The Christian Health Care Center for their ongoing Food Drive and to nine-year-old Deanna for bringing us books and pajamas for our kids. Our families who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy still have many needs. Please call us to see how you can help. The following items are needed to help these and other local families: • New or gently-used clothing for boys ages 10 and up • New twin and queen size sheets • Stage 3 diapers and baby wipes • Cake mix and icing for birthday bags • A computer hard drive • A twin bed and a dresser • DVD players • Microwaves and toaster ovens • Test strips for one of our diabetic children Meet Leslie: Leslie is a 14-year old girl with stage IV brain cancer. Prior to her diagnosis, she was an extremely outgoing and active girl. She was a dancer and gymnast, and pursued modeling. She is now unable to walk. Twice a week, Leslie goes to Manhattan for treatments to try to slow the loss of leg function. She also travels all the way to Pittsburgh to receive a clinical trial for the rare form of cancer that has debilitated her. From her dance instructor to her elementary and middle school teachers, all who come into contact with Leslie and her family are immediately drawn to the inner and outer beauty of this young girl. Leslie’s mother has to carry Leslie everywhere around the home, and would greatly benefit from a wheelchair. Throughout the day, Leslie has multiple mini-seizures that leave her very frightened. Her only source of comfort through these episodes is the touch of her mother’s hand. If you can provide this family with a wheelchair, or if you can help with a financial contribution, contact: laura@emmanuelcancer.org, or telephone Laura at (201) 612-8118. You can help us in a variety of ways. Turn your event into a fundraiser, and collect checks or gift cards for our families. Your efforts help us to help families in many ways, including sending a case worker to visit the families at their home or in the hospital. This support for the kids, their siblings, and parents is crucial. Get your kids involved, too. Some have held sales or events and donated the proceeds to ECF. Is your Cub Scout or Girl Scout Troop looking to earn badges? Call us for some ideas to get creative and have fun while learning about philanthropy! We rely on our local community to help support our families. Many of them do not have the financial or emotional support to help them get through a major illness like cancer. Please remember, we do not charge anything for our services. We rely on you! Emmanuel Cancer Foundation is now celebrating 30 years of providing exceptional free services to families all over New Jersey. We welcome members of the community to make a contribution to honor this milestone. Just imagine how much good we could do with $30 from every reader! ECF is seeking volunteers to help with a 2013 holiday party for our families. If you can provide food, gifts, activities, or crafts for our kids and their families, please call. If you have a few hours a week to spare, consider becoming a volunteer, or just stop by and meet with us, take a look at our pantry, and see what ECF is all about. Call (201) 6128118 before you stop by. Please do not leave items at the center without checking with us first. Our storage space is limited. The Northern Regional Center is located at 174 Paterson Avenue in Midland Park. Visit us on the web at www.emmanuelcancer.org. As always, thank you for helping the children and their families!